Leading chip foundry supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) reported record sales of about NT$55.38 billion (about $1.88 billion) for September, an increase of 27.6 percent from September 2012.
The figure brings TSMC's 3Q13 sales up to NT$162.58 billion (about $5.53 billion), also a record amount. Third quarter sales were roughly at the mid-point of the forecast range given along with TSMC's 2Q13 financial results.
In the commentary on its second quarter financial results, Lora Ho, TSMC's chief financial officer, said that the company expects the IC supply chain to start managing inventories and moderating demand for TSMC wafers at some point in the second half of 2013. However, there is little sign of this in TSMC's record-breaking quarter.
As a result of the strong third quarter, revenues for the first nine months of 2013 were NT$451.22 billion (about $15.35 billion), an increase of 20.2 percent compared to the same period in 2012. TSMC (Hsinchu, Taiwan), which has about 50 percent market share in the pure-play foundry business, has a strong position in leading-edge process technology at 28- and 20=nm and is preparing customers to start designing with 16-nm FinFET process technology. As such, it has tended to outperform other pure-play foundries in recent years.
United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) , another pure-play foundry also based in Hsinchu, reported September sales of NT$10.85 billion (about $370 million), up 14.7 percent over its sales in September 2012 but marginally down on its sales in August 2013. UMC's year-to-date sales were NT$93.09 billion (about $3.17 billion), up 7.2 percent on the same period in 2012.
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